Martinez applauds the achievements of local MVD

Gov. Susana Martinez joined the celebration of the achievements of staff and management of the Alamogordo Division of Motor Vehicles as one of the most improved in New Mexico. The Community Appreciation Day started at 3 p.m. Friday at the Willie Estrada Memorial Civic Center.

This is the fourth Community Appreciation Day since 2013, after Carlsbad, Deming and Sandia Vista in Albuquerque.

Padilla spoke about the directive she had received from Martinez when she took her post to make improvements in her office.

"MVD was very inefficient it was a way to make quick gains," Padilla said.

Many of the changes Padilla said were common sense — improve employee morale and improve their environment.

"Happy employees means happy customers," she said.

One of the first changes Padilla made was get rid of a field service supervisor who never left his office.

She described moves toward efficiency with the new online access to vehicle registration and plates. A system to obtain driver's license is in the works and should be available in May 2015. "Online," she noted, "the wait time is zero."

Discussing the old software, Padilla said: "MVD 2.0 was held together with duct tape. We have hired a firm to update the software and we are on time and on budget. That is rare."

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Gov. Susana Martinez concurred with Padilla that changes were simple and based on common sense. Martinez boasted of the achievements in the Alamogordo offices.

"The MVD has brought the wait time from 21 minutes to 10 minutes and in many cases, below 10 minutes," Martinez said. "Ninety-percent of the customers surveyed rated their experiences as good to excellent.... Less than one percent of them rated their experiences as poor."

She explained that MVD staff had streamlined their work, with one person working in one category (for example: drivers' licenses) exclusively. They had also brought in volunteers to do certain chores, such as greet the public or take photographs.

"All this has been done without spending money," Martinez said.

She said that New Mexico was the first state in the country to have a system to get consumer ratings. She believes the state is a leader in customer satisfaction and ranks as one with the lowest wait times. Burt said: "Everyone talks about change, not everyone is willing to take the bull by the horns. I have to applaud our folks with the local MVD for taking on the challenge."

Not everyone who came to the celebration was happy. A group of students came to protest the cuts in spending in the arts and particularly music. Others demonstrated over ranchers' rights and land rights.